Neil Young's high-def music format Pono due next year
Neil Young expects to launch Pono, a music service based on a new high-definition audio format that the rock musician is spearheading, early next year.Young made the announcement in a Facebook post Tuesday, adding that the Pono team has been focused on fine-tuning the new format, which he said has "liberated the music of the artist from the digital file and restored it to its original artistic quality -- as it was in the studio."Young also offered a little more insight into the process behind his new format."Pono starts at the source: artist-approved studio masters we've been given special access to," he writes in the post. "Then we work with our brilliant partners at Meridian to unlock the richness of the artist's music to you. There is nothing like hearing this music -- and we are working hard to make that experience available to all music lovers, soon." Young went on to say that his project planned to launch a Pono portable music player like the one he showed off a year ago on "The Late Show with David Letterman" (see video below), as well as a library of music based on the format. According to Wired, Young has already secured remaster agreements with the "big three" music labels: Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music.The project, which is apparently the result of Young's long-standing dissatisfaction with the quality of MP3s, came to light last year after Young applied for a series of trademarks for what appeared to be potential names for a new high-definition audio format. The description for the trademarks referred to "online and retail store services featuring music and artistic performances, high resolution music downloadable from the Internet, high resolutions discs featuring music and video, and pre-recorded digital media featuring audio and video recordings for storage and playback."Rolling Stone magazine, which first reported on the trademark applications, suggested that "such a service would allow music fans to download audio files that sound like the studio recordings of the past, as opposed to the uber-compressed song files that are currently available at MP3 stores like iTunes and Amazon."Young showing off a portable Pono device last year for Letterman:(Via GigaOm)
J.C. Penney apologizes for former Apple exec's moves
J.C. Penney apologizes for former Apple exec's moves
J.C. Penney has launched a new ad campaign apologizing for the decisions made under Ron Johnson, its former chief executive and Apple's one-time retail chief.The new ad, posted to YouTube, focuses people in different locations as a narrator acknowledges the company's recent mistakes that left customers unhappy and pushed revenue down billions of dollars."It's no secret, recently J.C. Penney changed," the narrator says over the ad. "Some changes you liked and some you didn't, but what matters from mistakes is what we learn. We learned a very simple thing: to listen to you. To hear what you need, to make your life more beautiful. Come back to J.C. Penney. We heard you. Now, we'd love to see you."The ad is a response to the decisions made by former Apple retail executive Ron Johnson, who took over the J.C. Penney CEO job in November 2011. Although shareholders were initially excited by the sweeping changes he wanted to make to the retail company -- including eliminating sale items and attempting to make the stores "fun places to hang out" -- the decisions apparently annoyed customers and led J.C. Penney to a dramatically poor 2013 fiscal year. Revenue plummeted by nearly $5 billion in fiscal 2013, and its net loss widened from $152 million in the prior year to $985 million.Johnson, who made a name for himself as the chief architect behind Apple's wildly successful retail stores, was ousted as J.C. Penney's CEO last month. His predecessor, Mike Ullman, is his replacement.
J.C. Penney has launched a new ad campaign apologizing for the decisions made under Ron Johnson, its former chief executive and Apple's one-time retail chief.The new ad, posted to YouTube, focuses people in different locations as a narrator acknowledges the company's recent mistakes that left customers unhappy and pushed revenue down billions of dollars."It's no secret, recently J.C. Penney changed," the narrator says over the ad. "Some changes you liked and some you didn't, but what matters from mistakes is what we learn. We learned a very simple thing: to listen to you. To hear what you need, to make your life more beautiful. Come back to J.C. Penney. We heard you. Now, we'd love to see you."The ad is a response to the decisions made by former Apple retail executive Ron Johnson, who took over the J.C. Penney CEO job in November 2011. Although shareholders were initially excited by the sweeping changes he wanted to make to the retail company -- including eliminating sale items and attempting to make the stores "fun places to hang out" -- the decisions apparently annoyed customers and led J.C. Penney to a dramatically poor 2013 fiscal year. Revenue plummeted by nearly $5 billion in fiscal 2013, and its net loss widened from $152 million in the prior year to $985 million.Johnson, who made a name for himself as the chief architect behind Apple's wildly successful retail stores, was ousted as J.C. Penney's CEO last month. His predecessor, Mike Ullman, is his replacement.
iTunes U hits 1 billion downloads
iTunes U hits 1 billion downloads
That old college try seems to be working. Content downloads from iTunes U have surpassed 1 billion.Apple today announced the passing of the milestone for the repository of free educational content from schools, libraries, museums, and other sources. iTunes U hosts more than 2,500 public and thousands of private courses from over 1,200 universities and colleges, and 1,200 K-12 schools and districts."There are now iTunes U courses with more than 250,000 students enrolled in them, which is a phenomenal shift in the way we teach and learn," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said in a statement.The service is widely used around the world. More than 60 percent of app downloads from iTunes U come from outside the United States, Apple said. The scholastic content can be accessed in 155 countries, and educators can create iTunes U courses in 30 countries, including the recently added Brazil, South Korea, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates. That diffusion of access, as with other online learning initiatives such as the Khan Academy, means that students don't have to be on, say, the Stanford campus to partake in lectures and other coursework."Because of iTunes U, I have been able to introduce students and colleagues in China to research on the links between chronic multitasking, information overload and stress; discuss research publications and degree programs with students in Europe; and exchange information about the influence of neighborhood design on community levels of physical activity and obesity with students in Australia," Dan Stokols, a professor at University of California, Irvine, said in Apple's statement.iTunes U hit 300 million downloads in August 2010.
That old college try seems to be working. Content downloads from iTunes U have surpassed 1 billion.Apple today announced the passing of the milestone for the repository of free educational content from schools, libraries, museums, and other sources. iTunes U hosts more than 2,500 public and thousands of private courses from over 1,200 universities and colleges, and 1,200 K-12 schools and districts."There are now iTunes U courses with more than 250,000 students enrolled in them, which is a phenomenal shift in the way we teach and learn," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said in a statement.The service is widely used around the world. More than 60 percent of app downloads from iTunes U come from outside the United States, Apple said. The scholastic content can be accessed in 155 countries, and educators can create iTunes U courses in 30 countries, including the recently added Brazil, South Korea, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates. That diffusion of access, as with other online learning initiatives such as the Khan Academy, means that students don't have to be on, say, the Stanford campus to partake in lectures and other coursework."Because of iTunes U, I have been able to introduce students and colleagues in China to research on the links between chronic multitasking, information overload and stress; discuss research publications and degree programs with students in Europe; and exchange information about the influence of neighborhood design on community levels of physical activity and obesity with students in Australia," Dan Stokols, a professor at University of California, Irvine, said in Apple's statement.iTunes U hit 300 million downloads in August 2010.
iTunes ready for iOS 4; new App helps devs connect
iTunes ready for iOS 4; new App helps devs connect
Apple's iOS 4 will incorporate everything from video calling to multitasking, separating Apple's mobile device operating system even further from the competition, and those apps are now being accepted for the App Store. Developer's are sure to be excited about the many enhancements offered by Apple's iOS 4, including multitasking for background audio apps, VoIP, background and push notifications, task finishing, and fast app switching, Apple's new advertising platform iAds, the new social gaming network GameCenter, and 1,500 new APIs covering calendar access, in-app SMS, photo library access, video playback and capture, map kit improvements, and a new quick look feature.Apple has also released a new App to aid developers in the creation of the next great apps for the iOS 4 platform. According to Apple, the iTunes Connect Mobile App for developers:"Allows developers to access their sales and trend data from iTunes Connect. You can now view your daily and weekly sales data related to updates, paid and free apps as well as In-App purchases. Whether at the office, at home or on the go, iTunes Connect Mobile keeps you informed about your sales numbers right on your iPhone or iPod touch."The iTunes Connect Mobile application will work on iPhone OS 3.x (including on the iPad) and is available on iTunes now.Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.Submit a fix to MacFixIt! Email Us.
Apple's iOS 4 will incorporate everything from video calling to multitasking, separating Apple's mobile device operating system even further from the competition, and those apps are now being accepted for the App Store. Developer's are sure to be excited about the many enhancements offered by Apple's iOS 4, including multitasking for background audio apps, VoIP, background and push notifications, task finishing, and fast app switching, Apple's new advertising platform iAds, the new social gaming network GameCenter, and 1,500 new APIs covering calendar access, in-app SMS, photo library access, video playback and capture, map kit improvements, and a new quick look feature.Apple has also released a new App to aid developers in the creation of the next great apps for the iOS 4 platform. According to Apple, the iTunes Connect Mobile App for developers:"Allows developers to access their sales and trend data from iTunes Connect. You can now view your daily and weekly sales data related to updates, paid and free apps as well as In-App purchases. Whether at the office, at home or on the go, iTunes Connect Mobile keeps you informed about your sales numbers right on your iPhone or iPod touch."The iTunes Connect Mobile application will work on iPhone OS 3.x (including on the iPad) and is available on iTunes now.Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.Submit a fix to MacFixIt! Email Us.
iTunes Radio to go live in September, says report
iTunes Radio to go live in September, says report
Apple's new iTunes Radio will launch next month with several advertisers paying for commercial spots, according to the folks at AdAge.Citing information from "people familiar with the negotiations," AdAge said that Apple has already lined up advertising deals with McDonald's, Nissan, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, and possibly one or two other companies. Advertisers will pay anywhere from millions to tens of millions of dollars to run ads within the music service over a 12-month period, according to AdAge.Related storiesDialed in 110: Lessons for Android (podcast)The 404 Podcast 498: Where Jeff battles the TriadBuzz Out Loud Podcast 1145: China to Google: Suck itNutsie brings iTunes to Android via the cloudThe Real Deal 193: Road Test - CES edition (podcast)The ads themselves will be interactive and take over the user's screen on both computers and mobile devices as well as on Apple TV. iTunes Radio listeners will have to grapple with an audio ad every 15 minutes and a video spot every hour, the sources added.People can avoid the ads on iTunes Radio by subscribing to iTunes Match. The $24.99-a-year cloud-based service lets users access any music from their library not purchased through iTunes on any connected Apple device.Apple already announced iTunes Radio in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue said that the service would launch in the U.S. this fall and expand to other countries soon after that. Rather than offer searchable music on demand, iTunes Music will stream tunes from 200 different stations. Sound familiar? Yep, that means its major rival and challenge will be Pandora.
Apple's new iTunes Radio will launch next month with several advertisers paying for commercial spots, according to the folks at AdAge.Citing information from "people familiar with the negotiations," AdAge said that Apple has already lined up advertising deals with McDonald's, Nissan, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, and possibly one or two other companies. Advertisers will pay anywhere from millions to tens of millions of dollars to run ads within the music service over a 12-month period, according to AdAge.Related storiesDialed in 110: Lessons for Android (podcast)The 404 Podcast 498: Where Jeff battles the TriadBuzz Out Loud Podcast 1145: China to Google: Suck itNutsie brings iTunes to Android via the cloudThe Real Deal 193: Road Test - CES edition (podcast)The ads themselves will be interactive and take over the user's screen on both computers and mobile devices as well as on Apple TV. iTunes Radio listeners will have to grapple with an audio ad every 15 minutes and a video spot every hour, the sources added.People can avoid the ads on iTunes Radio by subscribing to iTunes Match. The $24.99-a-year cloud-based service lets users access any music from their library not purchased through iTunes on any connected Apple device.Apple already announced iTunes Radio in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue said that the service would launch in the U.S. this fall and expand to other countries soon after that. Rather than offer searchable music on demand, iTunes Music will stream tunes from 200 different stations. Sound familiar? Yep, that means its major rival and challenge will be Pandora.
iTunes gets ready for Russia debut, report says
iTunes gets ready for Russia debut, report says
Apple's iTunes platform could make its debut in Russia tomorrow.An Apple PR person in Russia has sent out an event invite to a small number of people in the country for a music event the company plans to host tomorrow night, TechCrunch, which obtained a copy of the invite, is reporting. The invite did not say that iTunes will be launching, but did acknowledge that the iTunes team will be holding the event.Russia is one of the more difficult digital-music markets to crack. The country has several legitimate download services, including one from search firm Yandex, but is also home to rampant piracy. The Intellectual Property Alliance, an organization dedicated to ending piracy, has placed Russia on its "priority watch list" as a major pirate.Related storiesDialed in 110: Lessons for Android (podcast)The 404 Podcast 498: Where Jeff battles the TriadBuzz Out Loud Podcast 1145: China to Google: Suck itNutsie brings iTunes to Android via the cloudThe Real Deal 193: Road Test - CES edition (podcast)Given that, iTunes availability has lagged. However, reports suggested that Apple would launch its music service in Russia in October. It was quickly pushed back to November, but was again delayed.Despite the obvious challenges with piracy, Russia is a huge country with huge opportunities for Apple's iTunes platform. If the company can find a way to get Russians to buy music, Apple might find itself a rather profitable market.CNET has contacted Apple for comment on the TechCrunch report. We will update this story when we have more information.This content is rated TV-MA, and is for viewers 18 years or older. Are you of age?YesNoSorry, you are not old enough to view this content.Play
Apple's iTunes platform could make its debut in Russia tomorrow.An Apple PR person in Russia has sent out an event invite to a small number of people in the country for a music event the company plans to host tomorrow night, TechCrunch, which obtained a copy of the invite, is reporting. The invite did not say that iTunes will be launching, but did acknowledge that the iTunes team will be holding the event.Russia is one of the more difficult digital-music markets to crack. The country has several legitimate download services, including one from search firm Yandex, but is also home to rampant piracy. The Intellectual Property Alliance, an organization dedicated to ending piracy, has placed Russia on its "priority watch list" as a major pirate.Related storiesDialed in 110: Lessons for Android (podcast)The 404 Podcast 498: Where Jeff battles the TriadBuzz Out Loud Podcast 1145: China to Google: Suck itNutsie brings iTunes to Android via the cloudThe Real Deal 193: Road Test - CES edition (podcast)Given that, iTunes availability has lagged. However, reports suggested that Apple would launch its music service in Russia in October. It was quickly pushed back to November, but was again delayed.Despite the obvious challenges with piracy, Russia is a huge country with huge opportunities for Apple's iTunes platform. If the company can find a way to get Russians to buy music, Apple might find itself a rather profitable market.CNET has contacted Apple for comment on the TechCrunch report. We will update this story when we have more information.This content is rated TV-MA, and is for viewers 18 years or older. Are you of age?YesNoSorry, you are not old enough to view this content.Play
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